Kliff Undersn
Kliff Undersn (クリフ=アンダーソン, Kurifu Andāson) is a character in the ''Guilty Gear'' video game series. Character Design Gallery ; Kliff Undersn's Image Gallery Personality The Head Commander of the Sacred Order of Holy Knights, he bears the War Relic “Dragon Slayer”, a sword said to fell a Dragon in a single stroke, a symbolic gift representing his title as a Hero. Ky who is considered one of the most talented representatives of the Sacred Order, and also a hero, deeply respects him. He raised Testament from his childhood as his Step-father, and even scouted out the infamous Sol to join the Order. During the Crusades he crossed blades with Justice countless times, it was through his efforts that the Holy War was brought to a close. Some time later, he died at a meeting of the 2nd Sacred Order of Holy Knights Martial Arts Recruitment Tournament. His personality was strict, but he stood for fairness. He regarded his men as family and would often feel great remorse when lives were lost and innocence was tarnished. He also felt that he would be condemned for his sins, particularly for involving children like Tyr, Ky and his foster son in the war against Gears. Story Background As a young child, Kliff was nearly killed by a rampaging Gear, but was saved by Sol Badguy (who at the time was still going by the name Frederick). The sight apparently inspired him to do greater things, because he then joined the Sacred Order of Holy Knights. It is unknown who the commander was before Kliff, but they eventually made him the leader of the Order. He led the Sacred Order of Holy Knights during the Crusades, and was even given a gift in the form of a sword of his choice, for being the leader of the Order. He chose the Dragonslayer, a gigantic blade that was said to have the power to kill dragons with a single strike. He was also known as the first person in history outside of the Japanese who could harness the power of Ki. Kliff was undoubtedly the strongest soldier in the army, being able to fight a Gear like Hydra, who leveled London, England. Hydra had five heads and many great sword limbs that tore the city to rubble. The Sacred Order couldn't do anything against it for a day and night before their leader Kliff Undersn finally arrived. He fought the beast for seven days and nights, although managing to cut off only three of its heads and four of its sword limbs. Though the struggle and loss were great, the Order wrapped Hydra in thirteen chains, put two large boulders on the remaining heads and sealed it, as they had many other legions of Gears to fight at that time to route their forces, and for a long time, the buried Gear lay dormant and the location became no man's land. However, despite the Hydra, humans drifted back in and built a village on top of it. During the Crusades, Kliff even found time to foster a son in Testament. Testament was a pacifist, but held much respect and admiration for his foster father and this drove him to seek a way to get stronger and fight. He was approached by the Post-War Administration Bureau, who claimed they could do something to Testament to make him a better fighter. Testament was desperate and agreed. He did not know that the Bureau was actually using him as a test subject to see if they could correctly create Gears themselves. Shortly after being converted, Testament then lost control of himself to Justice. Kliff was forced to fight his son at one point, and afterwards, Testament began to remember his foster father, but lost himself in Justice's control again, and ran off. Kliff eventually met the mysterious youth known as Tyr, who he convinced to join the Sacred Order of Holy Knights and eventually served as his battle partner. Around 2160, Kliff came across Ky Kiske, who was most likely battered and barely surviving, like most orphans who came from the Crusades. Eventually, Ky decided he wanted to make a difference and joined the Order as a young boy. Ky was a natural at using the sword and magic as he grew under Kliff's teachings. Eventually, he rose to a certain commanding rank. At some time in 2172, the Order began to hear rumors of a notorious bounty hunter taking out Gears with relative ease. Kliff immediately tracked this man down and recruited him into the Order. This man was none other than Sol Badguy. After many years, Sol confronted Justice for the first time, and even though he put up a good fight, he lacked the power to wound her enough in his human form to seal her. Left with no other options, Sol stole a piece of the OutRage, his own creation made at least 100 years prior, when he still considered himself a scientist: the Fireseal. Ky caught Sol during the act, and feeling he wasn't worthy of one of the Order's treasures, fought him, though Sol easily defeated him. Ky was about to call reinforcements to catch Sol for betrayal and being a deserter, but Kliff stopped him, and told Ky not to say a word of this incident to anyone. Kliff caught up with Sol and explained he will let Sol have the Fireseal, as he was going to give it to him anyway, but first, Sol had to prove himself with the sword. After the fight, Sol went on his way. Kliff realized he could invest his trust in both Sol and Ky. Ky had reached the rank of "Guardian God" (a rank directly below the commander), and eventually Kliff handed the postion of leader over to Ky at the young age of 16. As a symbol of that leadership, Ky was given the Thunderseal, yet another piece of the OutRage. Kliff seemingly retired after this. ''Guilty Gear'' Five years after the Crusades, Kliff lived a quiet life of retirement in sheer boredom. His only diversion now was the study of various cultures' fighting techniques, the most interesting of which stemmed from the lost, legendary nation of Japan. However, one day while walking through the streets, he noticed a placard announcing a tournament for a proposed Second Sacred Order. Sensing a disturbance in the natural flow of energies, Kliff suddenly suspected something so terrible that he dare not speak it aloud: was Justice being resurrected? Kliff immediately decided to return to the battlefield and enter the tournament. Kliff had been fighting his way through the tournament until he came across Justice. Out of a form of respect for Kliff due to their many clashes in the past, she offered him the chance to save himself and leave, but Kliff refused and the two fought. Unfortunately, Kliff's age had finally caught up with him; he couldn't even scratch Justice anymore. She struck him with a killing blow. At this moment, Ky Kiske arrived to find his master dead, and in a rage, attacked Justice. Though Ky put up a decent fight, she still defeated him and went on her way, until she was finally killed by Sol. ''Guilty Gear XX Λccent Core Plus'' His Story Mode in this game apparently chronicles his days as director of the Holy Order, his struggle with Sol Badguy, and finally his fight against Justice. His story is set apart from the "present" of the game, and seems to be more a review than a new story about Kliff. Gameplay Kliff wields a large sword that appears throughout legend. In the first game, he is introduced as a playable character, then in GGXPlus and as a hidden character in GGXX. In battle, he is exactly the kind of fighter that you would expect someone wielding a huge sword to be: very slow. Kliff is very slow, but his attack power is higher than the other characters. However, he has some oddities. First off, when you jump into the air, he takes time to fall to the ground, "floating" his way down. Second, whenever you activate his main taunt, Japanese Katakana symbols materialize and inflict up to 3 points of damage. He, unlike Potemkin, can at least air dash. A large majority of his moves have great reach, and his special moves have a rather wide coverage; these traits alone coupled with a notable amount of damage has caused him to be banned from GGXX along with Justice and Robo-Ky, and since then along with Justice, he was removed from the subsequent XX games. It wouldn't be until Accent Core Plus that he and Justice would reappear with new Force Break attacks to fit the system, in Kliff's case, his new FB would be a midair version of one of his moves on ground. Kliff in Accent Core Plus did have some rebalances, but it wouldn't be until Accent Core Plus R he would be rehauled once more, gaining another Force Break version of one of his attacks. Thus in that game, he is now a high damage dealer with long range, with the unique ability to stun his opponents very frequently due to his high stun modifiers, and moves like his 2S being superb at OTG pickup combos. His new FB Jigoku Tsukkomi is also a new powerful tool to use to open up new combos due to its instant stun mechanic, despite it being one of the slower Force Breaks in the game. His 6H, 5D (one of the best Dust attacks in the game), j.K, Kubimatagi, and TK'd Shishi Otoshi are very powerful supplements to his low attacks as very good overheads, giving Kliff a strong mixup game. However, using his more wide-swinging moves too often such as his Dust would cause his own stun rate to rise, making some of his tools double-edged. His Sen no Sen would also backfire on him if used too often, and Kliff can also be at a big disadvantage should he be close to reaching stun-state himself. His moves such as his FB Jigoku Tsukkomi, Urokohagashi, Kubimatagi, 6H, Shishi Otoshi and other similar moves tend to be a bit slow, laggy, and to be often used in combos, so Kliff can easily be punished just as well as he can punish his opponents if he misuses his attacks. He also requires smart use if forced on the defensive should he lose his momentum. Powers & Abilities In his prime, Kliff's superhuman strength was nearly without equal and he was regarded as the strongest human in history. He effortlessly cut down a legion of Gears merely with a vacuum of air created by swinging his sword. He was capable of fighting a Megadeath-Class Gear known as Hydra without aid for several days and nights and managed to cut off three of its heads and several of its sword-like limbs. Additionally, he showed a strong resistance to miasmic poison and lightning magic utilized by the gear. He has also fought Justice on even terms on seventeen occasions in battle, with a winner left undecided after each confrontation. During his days at the Order, even Sol found it difficult to defeat Kliff in a duel despite his old age. It is also said that he slayed many Dragons and Dragon-type Gears during his tenure as a Holy Knight, and did so even before joining the Sacred Order of Holy Knights and gaining the Dragon Slayer. He specializes in the rare Magic Art of Ki, using it to temporarily restore him to his youth and increase his already phenomenal strength. He's also regarded as a genius for being the first non-Oriental warrior to ever master Ki. Command List Kliff Undersn's Command List}} Musical Themes * Pride and Glory - Guilty Gear * Pride and Glory II - Guilty Gear XX * Vengeance is Mine - Guilty Gear XX: #Reload Korean OST Character Quotes See: [[Kliff Undersn/Quotes|'Kliff Undersn Quotes']] References and Allusions *His name could be an homage to the late Cliff Burton. Cliff played bass for Metallica from 1982 to 1986. *His Jigoku Tsukkomi move, while it literally means "Hell Penetration", Tsukkomi is a term for the "straight man" to the "boke" AKA the dumb one in many Japanese comedy routines. The way Kliff jabs at his foe during the move is a possible subtle play on the tsukkomi often smacking the boke for his incompetence. **Also tying into his taunt and one of his battle intro animations alike, they are also most likely based off of Japanese comedy skit routines. *His Overdrive, Soul Survivor, not only is the same name of Young Jeezy's song featuring Akon, but it most likely references the song(s) Sole Survivor by either the band Asia, Helloween or Gorefest. Trivia *In GGX2, he is a secret character unlocked by beating him on Level 440 in Survival Mode, completing all sixty story paths, completing fifty missions in Mission Mode, or accumulating up to ninety-six hours of normal gameplay. *In the original Guilty Gear, Kliff could not dash at all while on the ground. Back dashing instead activated his dodge move. *Until GGX2, he was the only character capable of using a midair Dust attack. *In the Guilty Gear X Drama CDs and the manga, it is revealed that Kliff was buried close to the Grove. External Links ... References ... Navigation Category:Guilty Gear Characters Category:Humans Category:Playable Characters Category:Males Category:Holy Knights Category:Secret Characters Category:Heroes